Month: August 2008
(page 2 of 8)

Do not miss this insightful and provocative post from my friends Jason and Vonetta Strobakken from Radical Living Community in NYC. This is a first in a series of posts and responses in God’s Politics Blog about the subject of multi-cuttural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic expression in new monasticism.

The key players in New Monasticism have made important strides in raising awareness of issues pertinent to disenfranchised members of our society, yet these leaders often make some of the same mistakes as their conservative counterparts. One of the Twelve Marks of New Monasticism is the “lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.” Although most do “lament” the racial divisions in our society, one is hard-pressed to find a leader in New Monasticism who is not a middle class white male. However, the problem is not with their class, color or gender, but that there has yet to be an “active pursuit” of reconciliation realized within the myriad intentional communities that have sprouted across the United States. And after some good private conversations with some those leaders, we agreed to open a public dialogue about this issue because by their very natures both this conversation and this movement aren’t just about a handful of leaders. It’s about every member of every community who needs to actively seek reconciliation.